Booksellers like myself get excited about a book when it looks pretty, then if the insides end up being awesome, too, we get really uppity. Sometimes we end up foisting it on everyone we see and people start to get tired of it. When it’s a new baby book, it’s hard to be optimistic. So many of them are kind of cliche and syrupy. But when this one came out, “When I was Born,” by Isabel Minhos and illustrated by Madalena Matoso we all gathered around to flip through it. Not only are the pictures beautiful: simple paper cut like shapes, minimal, bright colors and a sense of humor, but the words are wonderful. Which can be woefully rare.

This is what the cover looks like. I recently gave this to a pregnant co-worker, I don’t know, a mere week or two after discovery. That usually doesn’t happen. New baby books are carefully chosen from my vast list. But recently, two of my favorites (Carry Me, by Rosemary Wells and Bittle, by Patricia MacLachlan) have gone out of print.

Here are some more pictures. I truly love the way this has been translated; the author speaks Portuguese, I believe.

See that text? That there is gorgeous!

Beautiful Endpapers

In other news, I FINISHED MY QUARTER! I’m so excited: to get some sleep (I’ve slept like 2 hours in the last 60), to catch up on my reading and work on all those freelance projects I managed to secure. Accidentally.